Atrium · Hardware
Atrium is software, but it doesn't run on nothing. Somewhere in your home or office, a real machine holds your resident, your memory, your continuity. Two categories of hardware make an Atrium real: one server, and as many all-in-ones as you have rooms.
This page is the plain explanation — what each piece does, what it takes to run one, and how to actually get the hardware.
How it fits together ↓
The two pieces
THE SERVER
The mind of your Atrium.
A small, quiet computer that never sleeps. This is where your resident actually lives — memory, continuity, the boundary that keeps it yours. Plug it in, leave it alone. One Atrium, one server, whether you have one room or ten.
THE ALL-IN-ONE
The surface you touch.
A compact device with a screen, wherever you want to reach your Atrium — a kitchen counter, a desk, a bedside table. It doesn't think; it reaches back to the server for everything that matters. Add one per room. They all meet the same resident.
One place, or several
One location
One server, one surface, one room — or the surface sits right on the server itself. This is the entry point: no second machine required.
Two or more locations
The moment a second room wants in, the server becomes the coherence point for all of them — every surface reaches the same resident, the same memory, no matter which room you're standing in.
What it takes
ENTRY
4 GB memory
The defensible floor. A single-room Atrium, text and voice, nothing fancy. Plenty of small mini-PCs and older office machines clear this.
COMFORTABLE
8 GB memory
Room to breathe. The tier most single-location Atriums actually run at once they're past day one.
HEADROOM
16 GB memory +
Cameras, voice, more than one surface talking to the server at once — or a repurposed workstation with room to grow into.
Beyond memory: any machine with a spare drive bay and one network port qualifies. No exotic parts. Most of what clears this floor was someone's old office desktop.
Getting the hardware
BUILD YOUR OWN
Your hardware, our blueprint.
An Atrium server isn't exotic — it's a small, quiet computer running open virtualization software. If you've got the hands for it, or a machine already gathering dust that clears the floor above, you can build your own against Aleph's open specification. We publish what qualifies; you bring the box. If you'd rather buy parts than reuse an old machine, Aleph's own procurement side can help you source them at real cost — no distributor markup games, no mystery pricing.
LET ALEPH PREPARE ONE
A real surplus, put back to work.
There is a genuine surplus of capable small servers already in the world — decommissioned office towers, retired workstations — more than enough to build Atriums from for a long time. We're building the capability to source, refurbish, and prepare these ourselves: tested, imaged, and shipped ready to run, at a fraction of new-hardware cost. This may grow into its own surface in time. For now, tell us what you need and we'll get you a real machine.
The hardware is the easy part.